The International Evolution of Italian and Chinese Districts: What Role for Lead Firms?

The paper stresses how Italian and Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) internationalize according to different approaches. Indeed, in the former case firms may move abroad because they follow the so-called lead firms that act as a meta-national body, whereas in the latter case SMEs are committed to exports and/or FDIs through a thick and wide web of ethnic networks. These are based on factors such as embeddedness and social capital as well as other cultural determinants.